Intro combines business, creativity with rotating chefs and menu
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Most chefs are passionate about their ingredients. Negotiating a lease and choosing partners? Not so much.
But there's a new restaurant in Lincoln Park hoping to marry the creative with the business side, and it's coming from the team at Lettuce Entertain You, which has more than 40 years of experience. Not only does the concept change every three months, so does the executive chef.
The kitchen is busy for a weeknight at Intro, the latest incarnation in the Belden-Stratford space that once housed Ambria and L.2.0. CJ Jacobson is assembling his five-course tasting menu. The California native has spent the past several weeks working with the team at Lettuce Entertain You to help create this three month restaurant.
"It's amazing to sit down with eight experts at a time, there's a conversation about what's best for this and that and just being a part of that conversation I've learned a lot," Jacobson said.
Chefs like Jacobson will get access to Lettuce's team of experts during the tryout period. Lettuce Founder Rich Melman says Intro literally introduces the city to young, up-and-coming chefs.
"The second thing is introducing them to the methodologies that we've used to be successful over the last 44 years; and I've learned a lot, I've made a lot of mistakes. I've probably made more mistakes than anybody in this city because I've tried so many different things. So we have a lot to share," Melman said.
To get a seat, you buy a ticket online. Jacobson previewed a few dishes from his menu, like a "pasta" made from dehydrated rutabagas topped with egg yolk and a hearty potato dish.
"Potatoes are first cooked for a long time, and then we rice them over bonito creme fraiche. Very smokey and salty and creamy. Then we garnish it with crispy potato skins that we dehydrate after they're cooked and then lightly fried so they're crunchy and chewy," Jacobson said.
Topped with chicken skin and a frothy chicken stock, he obsesses over his ingredients.
"They're geeks when it comes to the product and where it comes from and they don't know much about leases," Melman said. "We want people that we like that we think are willing to want to grow, and to listen and to become a little more business-oriented."
So all of the excitement here at Intro happens right here, in the heart of the kitchen. That's because every three months, all of the dishes - the entire menu, the concept - changes. However, unlike Next in the West Loop, the executive chef here also changes every three months.
Intro
2300 N. Lincoln Park West, Chicago
You must buy tickets online to dine.
